Growing up with John Hughes

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11 years ago

"I’m gonna grow an audience." That’s what John Hughes told them and that’s what he did. Suburban teens all over America watched his coming-of-age films while they themselves came of age. For these maturing fans, Hughes wrote She’s Having a Baby, one of his only movies to spotlight main characters all of legal drinking age. It’s a natural progression: Even Ferris Bueller had to grow up sometime, didn’t he?

If SHAB wasn’t a box office success, perhaps that’s because his brat pack films worked so well that the fans were unable to let go. Swapping Sixteen Candles for 26 candles isn’t easy for people with anxieties about getting old. Here, Kevin Bacon stars as a husband coming to terms with having a wife, a career, and a baby. Four years ago, he was headlining Footloose . Yikes. Don’t be scared. It is still a John Hughes film after all. You’ll get your happy ending. Hughes thought the film was undervalued; admirers consider it to be his most ambitious work.

There’s more to life than high school. Get serious. Watch tonight at 8 p.m.